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He's a cut above the rest

More than a decade after arriving in Canada to marry the love of his life, Cumbrae's butcher Stephen Alexander is coming into his prime.

Stephen Alexander at Cumbrae's butcher shop in Toronto. The Aussie expat is from a family of master butchers. (JIM ROSS / TORONTO STAR)

By Jerry LangtonSpecial to the Star

Mon., April 21, 2008

The first step in Stephen Alexander's path to success was a trip to the Greek Islands. It was just supposed to be a vacation from his career as a butcher in Melbourne, Australia, but he met the woman of his dreams, and they decided to get married.

The plan was that the couple would get married and spend six months in her hometown of Toronto, then live in Australia. But she realized she didn't want to emigrate and he began to enjoy life in Canada, so they decided to stay. There was only one problem – he hated the meat here.

For most people that wouldn't be too big an obstacle to a happy life, but it was for Alexander. The son and grandson of master butchers, Alexander had also trained for years in the art of choosing and cutting meat. It wasn't just his career, it was his passion; and something he saw room for in this country.

"It's not so bad now, but when I got here in 1994, I saw a massive disconnect with food and where it came from," he said. "Food was just something on styrofoam from the supermarket."

But he could sense that people wanted something different. They wanted a better product – and they wanted to know where it came from and how it was raised.

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So he gave it them. Alexander is now the owner of Cumbrae's, one of the most respected meat purveyors in the country. Of course, he had a few advantages – movie star good looks, easy charm, boundless energy and an old-school work ethic – but that doesn't mean it all came easily.

The first thing he had to do was find a suitable farm.

"We didn't want to deal in catchphrases like `naturally raised' or `organic' because who knows what they mean anyway?" he said. "Besides, you can call it whatever you want, but if it doesn't eat well, what's the point?"

Alexander knew exactly what he wanted, labels notwithstanding.

"What we were looking for was a traditional farm with traditional methods – the opposite of a factory farm."

It didn't take long for him to find what he needed. "I was introduced to Alistair Robinson, who owned Cumbrae farm, and it was a match made in heaven," said Alexander. "He had everything we wanted."

He bought Robinson's farm and brought in his old friend and colleague Nathan Pond to run it, keeping Robinson on as a consultant. The animals on his farm are humanely raised and much of what makes their lives better makes their meat better.

"Factory cows are fed a steady diet of grain, which makes them bloat and requires the use of antibiotics to digest," Alexander said. "Our cows choose from a more natural diet of alfalfa, clover, corn silage and barley, so we don't need to use antibiotics."

Alexander's high standards quickly became well known in the industry, and suppliers started having to do their homework.

"We work with other farmers all the time, but they're never what we want at the beginning," he said. "Once we determine the animals' genetics is what we're looking for, we start changing the feeding program and other variables until the meat is amazing – only then will we talk price. We are obsessed by the end product, not the process."

After a few tastings and positive word-of-mouth buzz, Cumbrae's meat began to gain popularity on fine dining establishment menus – first in Niagara wine country, then Toronto.

"The chefs have been a great help," he said. "People see `Cumbrae's Dorset lamb' on the menu, and if they like it, they ask about how to get some for themselves."

How to get it to them became the next hurdle. Robinson told Alexander about an empty butcher shop on Church Street.

"It was a dump, an absolute hole," said Alexander, laughing. "But it was cheap, and we got up to speed in no time." It was the first of what are now three Cumbrae's retail locations – there's another on Bayview a few blocks south of Eglinton and one more in Dundas, just west of Hamilton. And he continues to do a brisk wholesale business.

The quality of his meat is never questioned. Alexander said his greatest fear is that someone will taste his meat and wonder what the big deal is. Celebrated Toronto chef Mark McEwan, who is planning to open a retail store in October, said. "If my meat is as good as Cumbrae's, then I'll be proud."

Instead, the challenge has been convincing customers that the store isn't just for people with unlimited budgets. Changes in people's attitudes toward their diets have helped him.

"People are eating less meat these days, so they are often looking for better quality in smaller portions," he said. "They'll spend $40 a pound for quality cheese, so $25 a pound for similar quality meat isn't that great a leap."

And he's helped himself as well. "We use all the meat in our animals, from nose to tail," he said proudly.

He gives the example of the wagyu cattle he raises. Wagyu, world famous for being the cattle that provide Kobe beef, has some cuts that retail for $150 a pound and that's all most people are interested in. Cumbrae's, however, sells every part of the wagyu – including some cuts for as little as $15.99 a pound.

"You'll pay way more than that for a decent steak in a supermarket; and this is an awesome steak," Alexander said. "Alternative cuts like sirloin tip and short ribs can be amazing too – people on a budget can get the wagyu experience without spending a lot – a wagyu sirloin tip is as marbled and tender as a prime strip loin."

The problem is that most of his customers don't know how to cook these cuts and, even if they do, they tend to gravitate toward the more familiar cuts. "Look at bavette – the cut the authentic Parisian steak frites is made with," he said. "Nobody here knows what it is, so they make steak frites with strip loin – what a waste."

To get around this, Alexander installed a top restaurant-quality kitchen in his Bayview store. In it, his chefs make entrees with less familiar cuts. While most butchers would just grind cuts into sausage or burgers, Alexander has been able to use them more creatively.

For example, the pork chops from Cumbrae's Berkshire pigs are so popular, Alexander found he had an excess of the less familiar, but no less delicious, shoulder meat. So now Cumbrae's makes Berkshire pork and beans and, one of Alexander's personal favourites, Berkshire pulled pork – a delicacy popular in the Carolinas, but virtually unknown in Canada.

He's particularly pleased with this innovation. "I'll never open a store without a kitchen again," he said. "We can make things here that would be too time-consuming or expensive for people to make at home."

So, 14 years after coming to Canada just to get married, Alexander is a farmer, butcher, retailer and chef – and at the top of the game in all of those fields. Besides his skill and hard work, he happened to choose the right place at the right time.

"With so many people paying attention to what they are eating and looking for the best tasting and healthiest products, our kind of meat is suddenly hot, it has cachet," he said. "When I consider how I grew up, I find that hilarious."

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